BioPharma

Stem cell clinics peddle a lot of snake oil – but the market’s growing fast

Stem cell clinics proliferating - but academics still view the work going on at these for-profit centers as quackery. Where, and why, is this market growing?

There’s a lot of snake oil in stem cells.”

That’s the mantra of Dr. Larry Goldstein, director of the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center at University of California, San Diego, who always cautions that selling hope with false promises is big business among stem cell clinics. He’s bullish on the therapeutic potential of stem cells, but consistently urges skepticism. If it’s too good to be true, it invariably is.

A duo of new Associated Press articles highlight this concept, as does a recent Los Angeles Times piece on how a Malibu psychiatrist with a revoked medical license is still peddling stem cell cures – abroad, and with little repercussion:

As long as the treatments never enter the country and Rader no longer represents himself as a licensed doctor, U.S. regulators are limited in their ability to stop him.

One of the AP pieces reports on athletes using stem cell infusions as quick-fixes. They pay loads – often abroad – to receive dubious treatments for injuries that might otherwise require time-consuming (and career-killing) surgery and rehab:

“Traveling to a place like the Caymans, that’s like saying ‘I’m going to Mexico to have an appendectomy to save $80,’” said Dr. Matthew Matava, head physician for the St. Louis Rams and the NHL’s St. Louis Blues. “It looks like it’s not very smart or you’re grasping at straws.”

The other AP article probes into the burgeoning market of U.S. stem cell treatment centers – and the ostensible quackery.

“It’s sort of this 21st-century, cutting-edge technology,” says Dr. Paul Knoepfler, a stem-cell researcher at the University of California, Davis. “But the way it’s being implemented at these clinics and how it’s regulated is more like the 19th century. It’s a Wild West.”

Stem cell clinics in South Korea, a prime hub for the medical tourism trade, have built out machines that repurpose fat-based stem cells for cosmetic purposes. These machines are now being used by the California-based Cell Surgical Network – the largest network of stem cell clinics in the U.S. Here are some notable figures:

Today, the Cell Surgical Network is the largest stem-cell chain in the nation, with 67 locations and a roster of more than 100 doctors in 22 states. Doctors who join the network generally charge about $9,000 per procedure; they pay Berman and his partner $25,000 to $30,000 for a South Korean cell-separating machine and other equipment.

Dr. Mark Berman of the Cell Surgical Network told the Associated Press that he’s doing pro bono work, and the example cited in the article smacks of placebo effect – or the untapped potential of centrifuged stem cell goo:

Julia Matsumoto, of Fountain Valley, Calif., claims stem-cell injections have helped maintain her eyesight four years after being diagnosed with chronic relapsing neuropathy, which causes inflammation of the optic nerves and can lead to blindness.

Berman has treated her on a monthly basis since 2012, free of charge, because Matsumoto cannot afford repeat procedures. Berman liposuctions fat from her abdomen, then processes it with a spinning centrifuge machine and a drug, before filtering it and infusing the mixture into an injection site in Matsumoto’s chest.

“Things were so vivid and bright literally 30 minutes after the stem cells were given to me,” Matsumoto says, recalling her first treatment. “I started crying on the way home.”

These kinds of anecdotes aren’t firm enough evidence of stem cell clinics’ efficacy. Berman says he’s conducting a 1,000-patient safety study – “patient-funded research,” he calls it – but the stunning lack of clinical data has kept this kind of work blacklisted by most academics.

Berman, after all, doesn’t claim to know how all of this works:

The liquid is dark red, a mixture of fat and blood, and Dr. Mark Berman pumps it out of the patient’s backside. He treats it with a chemical, runs it through a processor — and injects it into the woman’s aching knees and elbows.

The “soup,” he says, is rich in shape-shifting stem cells — magic bullets that, according to some doctors, can be used to treat everything from Parkinson’s disease to asthma to this patient’s chronic osteoarthritis.

“I don’t even know what’s in the soup,” Berman says. “Most of the time, if stem cells are in the soup, then the patient’s got a good chance of getting better.”

Myself, I’ve been approached by some of these SoCal stem cell clinics. I’ve even been invited to India to check out the veracity of a hospital in India that uses centrifuged stem cell infusions to treat conditions ranging from Parkinson’s disease to saggy rear end. I declined.

[PHOTO: Flickr user Opacity]

Shares0
Shares0